As we returned to school and undertook the latest exciting chapter on our journey into pupil focused independent learning, I was left wondering why more schools aren’t engaging with this agenda.
At a time when Government and Ofsted are telling schools that there isn’t one formula that they are looking for, surely we should be breaking away from the “delivery of a knowledge based curriculum” to an approach where teachers engineer opportunities for deeper learning and where children lead their own learning and have an investment in their learning. This is an approach, which we have gone for as a leadership team and the transformation for us as a school and for the children has been staggering.
If I were to ask whether you would prefer to be involved in something that affects you or have it done to you, then I know how 100% of people would answer. Yet we used to deliver a curriculum to children rather than see them as integral to leading their own learning.
At St Nicholas we have given every one of our learners the right to be involved in their own learning and it has seen us go from a Requires Improvement judgement in December 2013 to Outstanding in March 2016.
The pupils at St Nicholas arrive in school with the same range of skills, attributes, challenges and backgrounds as most other schools with nearly 10% of the school population coming from the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller community, which enriches our school still further.
We made a decision as a staff some time ago, that regardless of the learning challenges that children face, all children can learn and we set ourselves a target of 100% 2 levels progress in all three subjects. In 2015 we achieved this and went on to achieve at least 50% in each of reading, writing and maths for more than expected progress. Our children’s baseline in Reception has traditionally been low and therefore progress is the currency which we work in. If we can make enough progress, attainment will look after itself!